


If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

by protectginozasquad



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Roy is a big dork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-04-03 23:17:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4118317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectginozasquad/pseuds/protectginozasquad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riza Hawkeye is a college sophomore who wants to celebrate the end of midterms with a baking session. Too bad a good-for-nothing chemistry major comes along and spoils her fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution to royai week, even though it has nothing to do with any of the prompts. Thanks to a-proud-fangirl for beta-ing!

It was a glorious night for Riza Hawkeye. A rare evening to relax on the dorm couches. Midterm exams had just finished. First midterms of the year, in mid-October. Riza liked the week after midterms better than after finals, because everyone took off to go home for the summer right after finals. But midterms? Everyone still had class, but no one has assignments, so there were late nights, with cookies and tea (or vodka and beer pong, she supposed) and conversations with Rebecca about boys or their futures. 

Riza wasn’t much of a partier, she never had been. She didn’t understand it, really. Why go spend time drinking the night away, not remembering what even happened, only to wake up miserable and sick the next morning? Not for her, no thanks. 

It was her second year at university, which meant on-campus housing. The school regulation was at least two years in the dorms, more if you wanted, but it was so expensive that almost everyone moved off campus for their junior and senior years. 

She and Rebecca had been friends since they were little. Everyone told them not to room with their best friend because it can “strain your relationship,” but being Rebecca’s roommate had been fantastic. They were practically roommates before university, always at each other’s houses, eating each other’s food, knowing each others secrets. 

Rebecca was out for the evening, on a date, probably. She had always been popular with the boys, even in high school. That was fine with Riza, who had 9am class in the morning, and felt like she could use some time to herself. 

But she wanted to do something for her class. It was a creative writing class, fulfilling a general education requirement for fine arts, but it had turned out to be quite the tight-knit community. Their midterm consisted of working together to publish an anthology of their best works from the first half of the year, and it had come together splendidly. Riza felt like she should congratulate her classmates and celebrate with them. 

As she made her way to the cozy dorm kitchen, she decided that there was no better way to celebrate than with cookies. (9am cookies? Breakfast cookies. Perfect.) Before she headed to the kitchen, she stopped to turn on the fireplace. It was electronic, nothing like her wood one at home, but it made nice, crackling sounds and provided some warmth on the cool fall evening. 

She had a cubby in the kitchen with her cooking supplies and ingredients. The school cafeteria, was, expectedly, sub-par, and Riza’s parents were excellent cooks, so Riza found herself making her own dinner in the dorm kitchen most of the time. 

She got out the sugar and eggs and started to beat them together. It was a quiet night, with the fireplace sputtering and popping pleasantly in the background. 

As she stood in the kitchen, she reflected on what the year so far had been like. She was a little envious of the ease Rebecca had with the boys. Rebecca was just so natural with them, laughing and flirting like it was nothing. Riza had no such talent. 

She sighed, inwardly berating herself for getting worked up over something so silly. 

Riza left the cookies on a plate and ran up to her room on the second floor to get a book. She was going to sit by the fireplace, eat one (or two, or three), and save the rest for class tomorrow. She pulled her flour-dusted shirt over her head, chose a comfortable t-shirt, and grabbed her favorite mug for some tea. 

As she walked down the stairs, the kitchen came back into view. She couldn’t see the plate of cookies anymore, because someone was standing over them. If she wasn’t mistaken, he (for it certainly was a dark-haired he) was devouring the cookies with lightening speed. 

“Hey!” she yelped out, surprised. No one ever came after her food. 

A dark-haired boy in sweats turned towards her, chocolate around the corners of his mouth, eyes widened in panic.

“Uh... are these yours?” 

Riza frowned. She knew this guy. He lived on the first floor, who was a chemistry major, and a junior, which meant he had to be made of money if he was still living in the dorms. She didn’t spend an hour prepping and baking to have some free-loader eat her precious cookies. 

“Well, they were mine, but it seems that they belong to you now.” The plate, full only minutes ago, was now almost empty. 

“I thought... I mean...” he was stammering nervously now. “They were just... here... maybe they were for... the dorm?”

Riza harrumphed. “You’re supposed to leave a note for communal food. No note, no sharing.” She crossed her arms over her chest and sneered at him. 

In a panic, the boy held out a hand to her. “I’m... uh... I’m Roy?” 

Riza was not impressed. “Wipe that chocolate off your fingers before you ask to shake a woman’s hand. It’s uncivilized.” 

“Ha... right...”

He walked to the sink and turned on the water. After he finished washing his hands, he turned back to her. 

“So, I’m Roy. Roy Mustang.” 

Riza cocked an eyebrow. “Well, Roy Mustang, my name is Riza. And I’m considering filing a complaint with the RA.”

He laughed nervously, “I mean, is that really necessary? It was a simple mistake.”

“As you can see, I was just about to wash my dishes and have a relaxing post-midterms evening in front of the fire, but that’s all been ruined. Why shouldn’t I complain? You broke the rules.” 

Chemistry majors are always so conniving, Riza thought. She waited for him to make an excuse, to back away, accept defeat, or try to bribe her. 

Instead, he sighed and hung his head. And much to her surprise, he began to apologize.

“No, you’re right. It was rude of me. They just looked so good, and I’m a little fried from all the midterms, myself.” He lifted his eyes up from the ground to meet hers. He even cracked a tiny smile. 

“Can I fix it?” he asked. 

Riza continued to glare, but she could feel her stomach start to churn a little bit. Why did this stupid kid have to be so sincere? Why couldn’t he be like the other spoiled rich kids? It’s so much easier to blow them off, to report them, get them fined and/or kicked out.

“You? Want to fix it?”

Roy’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why shouldn’t I? It’s clearly my fault. Come on, there has to be something I can do. The name was Riza, right?”

She nodded tentatively. 

“Fine. I won’t report you on a few conditions. First, you will bake a new batch of cookies. I will supervise, but you will do all the work yourself. Second, you will do all my dishes and put all my ingredients away.” 

Roy was expectant. “You mean, that’s it?” 

“Yes.” Riza could be reasonable. “Oh, and you’ll make my tea.” 

“Well, Riza, those are all things I think I can do! With your assistance, I will make the second-best batch of cookies that this dorm kitchen has ever seen!” 

“Why second best, chemistry-major Mustang? Aren’t you supposed to be good at mixing things together?” Riza smirked. 

Roy looked at her, smiled, and the sophomore could have sworn that he winked as he said, “Because no cookies can ever compare to yours, Riza.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They actually bake the cookies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um hi fma fandom. so after 9 months I decided to go back and add another chapter to this. It's probably quite OOC. but whatever. it's cracky.

Riza could not believe this. She was sitting on the dorm kitchen counters, smiling, talking, and joking with a boy. A boy who had only hours before become the object of her wrath. 

It turned out that Roy wasn’t as bad as the other chemistry majors, or the other rich kids. He was a little presumptuous, but Riza couldn’t help but notice just how good-looking he was. His clothes were rumpled from mixing the cookie dough a little too vigorously, and there was still some chocolate outlining his face from his original cookie theft. 

“Say, Riza, what year are you?” 

“I’m a sophomore.” 

“Have you decided on a major yet?” 

Riza laughed. 

“I don’t have to decide until the end of second semester, and I’m gonna hold on to that for as long as I can.” 

Roy looked at her quizzically, eyebrows raised. Riza was surprised how much his interest seemed piqued. “Do you have any idea at all?” 

Riza looked at him and sighed. 

“I guess so. English would be nice. I’m in a creative writing class that I really enjoy right now, and I took advanced literature freshman year. But I also might want to go into medicine, so I might to pre-med or nursing.” 

“Those things are pretty different from each other, aren’t they?” 

Riza kicked her legs out from the table and moved her eyes from Roy’s to the ceiling, feeling oddly at ease and free to speak. 

“Sure. But I’m interested in making a difference. I could make a difference in either of those fields. Writers get to reach out and inspire people, doctors and nurses get to save physical lives. In the end, that might be too much pressure for me. I’m pretty good at handling pep talks, not bandaging wounds,” she looked back down from the ceiling and met his eyes again. “Sorry, I’m rambling a little bit.” 

Roy shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I suppose we should talk about something else. All anyone ever wants to talk to university students about is their majors and their futures. It gets pretty old.” 

“It does,” she mused in agreement. “You need to put the flour in the dough now, by the way.” 

“Ah! So I do!” Roy set the bowl on the counter and quickly got to work unrolling Riza’s bag of flour. 

“Wait!” She realized she had rolled up pretty tightly. “Don’t open it too-”

A cloud of flour flew up, covering Roy’s face, dusting his messy, dark hair like an avalanche. 

“...quickly.” 

Roy pushed the bag of flour away from him before. 

It took them both a moment of staring at each other, but almost simultaneously they both burst into loud, childish laughter. Riza liked the free feeling of the laughter. She spent so much time reading, studying, and writing, that she sometimes forgot what it was like to laugh with other people. 

Once the mess was cleaned, and the smell of baking cookies once again permeated the dorm kitchen, Roy went to work making Riza a cup of tea. 

“Do you take any milk or sugar in your tea?” 

“You’re a little too good at this, Mustang,” Riza narrowed her eyes playfully. 

“I grew up around all sisters, and I didn’t exactly have a father figure.” 

“And yet you never learned to have the manners not to eat someone else’s cookies,” Riza folded her arms across her chest. She was surprised how much fun she was having teasing him. 

“I take sweetness where I can get it, Riza,” he said with a wink before turning back to the stove.

Riza was glad momentarily for his back turned towards her, as her cheeks warmed strangely at his wink, but she recovered quickly. 

“I want the chamomile tea, so I do take a bit of honey with it.” 

“Ah, of course, different fixings for different teas. Someone might think you were brought up by royalty, Riza.” 

She laughed, and then, “As if,” slipped out. She breathed in sharply, but blessedly, Roy seemed not to notice. 

The kettle went off, and he poured her tea, mixing in the honey. 

“If you want to go do your reading, I can handle the cookies from here,” Roy said, a bit too assuredly for Riza’s liking. 

“No way. The last thing I want is a burnt batch of cookies.” 

“Burn them? Me? Riza, you wound me!” 

His antics amused her, that was for sure.

Riza tried not to notice how much she was enjoying herself, because that would be admitting something she’d rather not think about. Feelings were something she had always been able to keep on the back-burner. Roy was going to be no different, she resolved. He was a bit cute, sure, but that couldn’t really mean anything. She needed someone with substance. 

She realized she lost herself in her thoughts too much when she noticed Roy’s eyes on her. 

“W-what?!” She stammered. 

“Oh, sorry!” He turned away. “It’s just, you looked like you were thinking about something important.” 

“It was nothing, really,” the blush was rising to her cheeks again, so she hopped off the counter and made her way to the oven, opening it to peek in on the cookies. Surely her red cheeks could be excused that way. 

The timer went off, and she pulled them out of the oven. 

“How’d I do?” Roy asked from behind her. 

“Let’s let them cool and then we can test them out... if you have any room in your stomach left after all of the other cookies.” 

“Oh, Riza, you should know that there is always room for more cookies,” he smiled at her, and for a moment, she let herself forget her worries, and nod.  


End file.
